Verses 2 & 3
When men rose up against us, perhaps they had swallowed us up alive. When their fury was enkindled against us, perhaps the waters had swallowed us up.
Cum exsurgerent homines in nos, forte vivos deglutissent nos; cum irasceretur furor eorum in nos, forsitan aqua absorbuisset nos;
Behold what might have befallen us if had God had not been in us, and had not helped us with His all-powerful strength. “When men rose up against us, perhaps they had swallowed us up alive,” that is, when our persecutors rose up against us, there was a danger they might swiftly destroy us as the sea or a river swallows up living men who perchance are cast into their waters. Three things are considered in this text:
firstly, the persecutors of the just are referred to as
men, because they are led by human reason alone, insofar as it remains in a nature corrupted by sin; for human reason, after the corruption of nature, has no taste for anything elevated, divine or spiritual, and it has no other aim than preserving and increasing its own worldly happiness. Of these men, the Apostle says in I
Cor. iii: “For, whereas there is among you envying and contention, are you not carnal, and walk according to man?”
[1] and a little further on: “Are you not men?”
[2] where the Apostle reads
to be carnal and
to be a man as having the same meaning; as he does with
to walk according to the flesh and
to walk according to man. Here there is some difficulty relating to the word
perhaps, which is repeated a little further on. It seems that this word is not well placed in the Vulgate since an affirmative word should have been used, such as
assuredly, in any case, properly. For if we read it as
perchance, it follows that God’s help is not necessary in overcoming temptations, seeing that
the prophet would certainly not dare to affirm this, but he leaves the doubt that a very serious temptation might destroy us, if God is not with us. Although this reading is not absent from the more recent commentators, to whom this word is not pleasing, they do not opt to translate the Hebrew and the Greek as
perhaps or
perchance but as
assuredly or
certainly : we, however, dare not depart from the Vulgate translation : for St. Jerome was a man most learned as well as most expert in both these languages; and more faith is to be had in him than in any dictionaries. He consistently translates the Hebrew as
perhaps; and in his commentaries on the Psalms in which he interprets the Septuagint edition, he reads the word as
perhaps; finally, in his corrections of the Psalter (
ad Suniam et Fretellam), he makes no corrections in this text. St. Hilary too, following Origen, St. John Chrysostom, and St. Augustine are all of one mind in reading the word as
perhaps; nor is there any variation of this reading in the Bibles. Nor is it to be feared that this little word should oblige us to take anything away from the grace of God: for the word
perhaps does not mean that we could perhaps, without God’s protective grace, resist the enemies rushing into attack us; but it could be that we are not swallowed up alive, because perhaps the enemy did not advance in rage as far as that point. But since there was a danger that the enemies might rush in rage to a most cruel slaughter, the Prophet says: “If it had not been that the Lord was with us, perhaps they had swallowed us up alive.” Finally, we have said that the words
they had swallowed us up alive is taken from the similitude of the sea or a river swallowing up and engulfing men alive, for there are no beasts, however cruel, that swallow men whole without tearing and mangling them, as is known; the following verse requires this reading, for as is common in the Psalms, it repeats the same with other words: it reads thus: “When their fury was enkindled against us, perhaps the waters had swallowed us up.” The sense is, perhaps the water had swallowed us up, that is, the fury of our enemies like the watery depths had swallowed us up. Not only in this verse, but also in the ones following, the Prophet maintains the similitude of waters, as we shall see soon.
[1] For, whereas there is among you envying and contention, are you not carnal, and walk according to man? Cum enim sit inter vos zelus, et contentio : nonne carnales estis, et secundum hominem ambulatis? [I Cor. iii 3]
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam.
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